How does your personal work differ from your commissioned work? Is there a big difference in the creative process or approach between the two?My personal work is like a foreign movie with subtitles, whilst my commissioned work is like a Hollywood blockbuster.

What kind of ideas do you want to explore in your personal work?
I try to address all the big questions; who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?

Why are you interested in fashion photography?
Because my heroes are Penn, Avedon and Newton.

About Please Return Polaroid
In this book Miles Aldridge revisits his Polaroid archive of 20 very prolific years of magazine assignments. Many of these Polaroids were intentionally or accidentally damaged while working on different shoots – trimming, adjusting, marking, cutting, pasting, outlining specific details in order to enhance, modify, reassemble or discard. Liberated from their original context, the images take on a life of theirown and create an almost dreamlike narrative. By partly enlarging and arranging the Polaroids in unexpected ways, Aldridge treats them as singular, independent images that deserve due respect. We are granted a rare insight into a photographer’s storyboard and work process while learning to appreciate the importance of flaws and imperfections, but also of playfulness, on the journey to the finished photograph.